You can now access widgets while using the Notification Center on any Home screen.

In beta 1, accessing the Notification Center from a Home screen only showed notifications, not the widgets. It’s a small but important improvement, more so given that the first beta limited accessing the widgets from your Lock screen, Home screen zero and inside the Notification Center, but only if called while using an app.

In short, widgets are now available in the Notification Center without exceptions.

As you can see for yourself, “Missed” inside iOS 10 beta 2′ Notification Center is now labeled “Recent” and The Weather Channel gets a much-deserved credit. On devices without 3D Touch, iOS 10’s rich notifications can now be interacted with by way of swiping down on them.

In iOS 10 beta 1, you had to slide over a notification banner to access its options.

Music app changes

You can once again shuffle all music by one artist in the Music app.

Plus, there’s now a Shuffle button within the Songs section so that you can enter shuffle mode without needing to play a song first. Connect tab no longer disappears from the Music app when you disable Apple Music and posts from artists you follow now appear underneath a new Connect Posts heading within the Music app’s For You section.

In iOS 10 beta 2, users can now sign in to Apple Music on Sonos, music videos can be played fullscreen and related music suggestions now appear in album pages. AirPlay devices show up on the Now Playing screen as well.

In Library, you can now view and manage a list of all active downloads.

There's a new Downloaded icon for playlists that have been downloaded to the Music app. Speaking of downloads, the Downloaded Music section has been renamed as Downloads and can no longer be removed. And lastly, the Music app now uses a smaller font and lets you adjust text size.

More Apple Music features coming via future betas

According to Apple, certain Apple Music features will become available in a future iOS 10 beta, including the following items:

For You Mixes

Viewing Connect posts on an artist’s or curator’s page

Follow and unfollow option on an artist or curator’s page

Report a concern on Connect posts or comments

Delete a comment you made on Connect posts

Account page to view all artists you follow

Setting to turn on or turn off the Automatically Follow Artists preference

Show Complete Album for Library items

Display of works and movements for classical music

Popularity indicators for albums

Messages improvements

Three days ago, Apple launched downloadable sticker packs for iOS 10’s much-improved Messages app. In iOS 10 beta 2, a dedicated iMessage Apps section has gone live within the App Store. The App Store tab inside Messages now shows a splash screen and lets you browse and download Featured content.

You'll also notice a new Manage section within the App Store for Messages and a switch labeled Automatically Add Apps inside of it. Toggling it to the ON prompts iOS to automatically put any apps on your device that include an iMessage extension in your app drawer in Messages.

If enabled, all images will be sent in lower quality to help save cellular data. Quick Reply for Messages notifications on non-3D Touch devices now presents you with the same embedded conversation view like on the iPhone 6s. And finally, your Digital Touch messages will now send to non-iOS 10 users in beta 2, but they won't animate.

A single organ donor can save as many as eight lives so Apple has built a new option into the Health application on iOS 10 beta 2 which permits U.S.-based customers to register themselves as an organ, eye and tissue donor with Donate Life America’s national organ donation registry.

iOS 10 Health Organ Donor teaser silver iPhone screenshot 001

Rest Finger to Unlock

iOS 10 beta 1 has dropped the familiar slide-to-unlock gesture in favor of a new way of unlocking the device that requires you to press the Home button with an enrolled finger to get to the Home screen, or rest the finger on the Home button to unlock the device without launching the Home screen.

In iOS 10 beta 2, there’s a new Rest Finger to Unlock option in Settings → General → Accessibility → Home Button which allows you to switch back to the old way of unlocking that didn’t require a press of the Home button.

And lastly, a padlock icon in the iOS status bar now animates with an “Unlocked” message when you unlock the device. Previously, the padlock icon simply disappeared.

Tidbits

In addition to the aforementioned refinements, iOS 10 beta 2 includes the following tweaks, design changes and other improvements:

Refreshed HomeKit icon inside Control Center

Overhauled icons for the Apple TV and speakers in the AirPlay menu within Control Center

Smart and Random Autofill options for music you sync with Apple Watch in the companion Watch app on iPhone

“Off” in AirDrop menu in Control Center is renamed as “Receiving Off”

For example, Faces in the Photos app do not sync across your devices

More importantly, functionality which requires adoption from the App Store apps, such as iMessage apps, SiriKit and Maps extensions, will not be available until those apps are able to adopt and submit to the App Store.